Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008
Montego Bay, Jamaica-Day4

Right off the ship
Bart and his Dad beg to be part of the band
Our driver, Peter, took us to the orange, pineapple, and sugar plantations. It was so neat to see everything. We picked some and he expertly cut them into peices for us to eat.

This was one of my favorite highlight of the trip, we were hiking to the pinapple fields and there was a small building where we heard chlidrens voices. Peter told us it was a school. I asked if we could look it and before we knew it the principal was inviting us to come in and look around and talk to the kids. This building was the size of a large family room, it was divided into 4 smaller "rooms" and each had a large table with about 8-10 kids. 3, 4, 5, and 6 yr. old classes. Artwork and writing covered the walls and, as a teacher, I saw tons learning going on. I just couldn't believe the poor environment, cramped space, and lack of certain materials. (I felt so full of gratitude and thanks for the public school system our family is blessed with) In Jamaica they only have private schools, parents will save and save just to send their kids to get a decent education.

I truly never knew how pineapples grew.

The beach was very fun. Lots of locals selling things and they are so hard to say "no" to. Peter said the unemployment rate was 25-30%. Here we are in America really worrying about 5%. How blessed are we.

Another pic of dinner. You can choose to try as many things as you'd like, I believe this was one of 6 plates for this night.


Peter, cutting our pineapple.
Bart, posing at the beach. After the beach we drove around some neighborhoods to see the way they lived. Bart couldn't believe how much it reminded him of Columbia (where he served his mission) It was very "third world" little one bedroom huts build against the sides of the mountains. Almost ever hut had clothes out drying on the clothes line. There were walking paths leading to their homes becuase in these parts no one owned a vehicle. Their streets were very narrow and curvy, pedestrians are all over and I couldn't believe how close cars (including us) would fly by them. We did see an car accident, and couldn't imagine anyone there could even afford insurance.

When we were going through customs to board the ship, they made us form a female line and a male line. We had our bags checked and walked through detectors, yet, the men all had to get physically patted down. I guess drugs are frequently smuggled from Jamaica. All us girls laughed as the men complained about their departure. ha ha